Staring into the Abyss- An Oral History of the Kaiju War
by Pollardinator
Summary: A prequel to the events of the movie detailing the international effort behind the Pan Pacific Defence Corps from the war foundries of Europe and Africa to the frontlines of the Pacfic Ocean. From Jaeger pilots and military personnel to world leaders and civillians,all have their own part to play in humanity's war against extinction. Written in the style of Max Brooks World War Z.
1. The Kaiju War

Kaiju. The very word conjures up images of the fire and death caused by the monsters that have blighted our planet for the past seven years. And yet, from the first attack in 2013, humanity as a whole has had to come to terms with the fact that we are not the undisputed masters of this planet, and that the creatures we face from deep beneath the Pacific Ocean are fighting a war of blind extermination. My first encounter with a Kaiju was in May 2016 in Tokyo, Japan, mere days after an attack that left millions displaced, injured or dead. The sight of the vast skeleton of the creature known as Onibaba towering above the harbour, as civilians and military personnel alike crawled over it like ants filled me with both awe and fear, and ever since, in my role as a field agent of the fledgling Pan Pacific Defence Corps, I have witnessed the deaths of dozens of these creatures.

I am no Jaeger pilot, and never will be, so my role in the on-going Kaiju War has been more about finding out the human cost of fighting a battle against the greatest threat our race has ever faced than actually brawling out on the ocean from within a Jaeger. Through this series of interviews I hope, in some small way, to shed light upon the stories of those caught up in the war, from its beginnings in 2013 with cities and armies being swept aside, to the triumphant days of the past few years, where it appears that, against all the odds, we are actually winning.

The following interviews cover the experiences of many people. Soldiers and civillians, scientists and rescue workers, Jaeger pilots and world leaders. And yet I have found that, despite their different backgrounds, ages and roles, large and small, all of them share in the belief that somehow, if humanity stands together, no matter how long it takes or how hard we have to fight, the Kaiju can be defeated.


	2. Trespasser

**Gates of the Fallen, Tokyo, Japan**

**(Tokyo in 2024 is, despite the Kaiju attack of 2016 turning it into a smoking ruin, once more a thriving city. I meet Professor Yumi Anna of the PPDC's Oceanography Division under the towering form of the memorial to the millions who died during the attack, constructed from the bones of the dead Kaiju Onibaba to form the world's largest tori gate, inscribed with the names of every death caused by the creature. The eyes of most of the citizens and tourists are drawn towards the statue at the other end of the park, the life size stone statue of the decommissioned Jaeger Coyote Tango, standing triumphant atop the remains of a stone Onibaba and reaching a hand down to the tiny form of a young girl, the so called 'Girl in Blue' Mako Mori, whose image became a symbol of hope for millions in the wake of the destruction of Tokyo. The middle aged professor takes a moment to look up at the countless names inscribed on the pale white bones rising above us before turning toward me, brushing a lock of greying black hair from her eyes and smiling as we start the interview.)**

I guess you could call me humanity's one and only ambassador to the Kaiju. That's what the media say at least. I remember, after the Kaiju went from terrifying monsters to objects of ridicule, a sketch on an American comedy show showing my 'first contact' with them as some ridiculous E.T parody, and then half an hour of jokes about how I must have rejected the monster's offers of a date and made him go and eat San Francisco in revenge.

**(She frowns)**

Bastards. I guarantee all those fat men in chequered shirts and moustaches laughing it up about the deaths of millions would have probably thought more about what they were saying if they had ever actually experienced one. I'm guessing you want to hear the story?

**Go ahead.**

**(Yumi smiles)**

I was working on a survey vessel tracking whale populations for the Japanese Oceanographic Institute in the Pacific Ocean about two hundred miles off the West Coast of the USA. I say survey vessel but it was really more of a container ship me and a few other researchers were tagging along with and bringing with us all manner of ancient scientific equipment. It was very dull work for the first week, just sitting by the seismic scanners and radar down in the lower decks, watching the odd tiny blip of green marking a shoal of fish or whale, and then noting it down in a battered logbook.

**Were you past the Breach when you saw the anomaly?**

Ah yes, the famous 'Pacific Blip', as the other scientists so imaginatively labelled it. Yes, as far as I remember we had gone past the future site of the Breach about an hour before the actual anomaly. You have to remember back then travel across the Pacific was hard, yes, but there was none of the giant red warning signs that you see all across that section of ocean every time you open a world map now. The Breach itself wasn't even on our charts back then. But anyway, back to the bit you came here for.

**(She sighs.)**

I was on radar duty that night must have been about three in the morning, pretty much pitch black when you stepped onto the deck, when it happened. I remember watching that green line making its way across the circular radar screen for what felt like the millionth time and I was already considering calling it a night and standing up when it happened.

**You almost missed it?**

Yes. And maybe it might have been better if I had, if only to spare me from the ridicule of internet trolls and Twitter. But, when I was just getting out of that chair and standing with my finger on the shutdown option on the computer I saw the green line of the radar make one final sweep. All of it empty. Until that last third of the screen, when I saw, illuminated for a second, a mass of bright green. About that big.

**(She holds up a hand, with thumb and forefinger about two inches apart.)**

I just remember one thought going through my head. 'If it's that big on the screen, how big is it out there in the sea?' I sprinted from the room after that to the main deck. I don't know why, it was pouring with rain out there and I was soaked through the second I stepped out onto the rain slicked metal and looked out over the ocean, already freezing under my thin shirt but I guess I just had a feeling that, whatever it was, it was no whale.

I must have been waiting a minute or so, and was considering going back to my uncomfortable bunk near the engine room when I felt it.

**(Yumi pauses, her face paling at the memory)**

I felt the sea beneath us moving, as if a great wave was rolling under the ship and yet, besides the rain, the sea was as calm as a koi pond.

That's when I got scared. By now the entire crew were out on deck, all grabbing onto something to hold, expecting the huge wave to throw us around like a toy.

"It's a monster wave!" the captain bellowed from further up, him and the first mate rushing to the bridge through the driving rain.

**(She smiles grimly)**

I guess he was half right.

Then I saw, through the rain and the murky sea below us, a shape moving.

And this wasn't a whale, or a submarine or anything. It must have been at least twenty metres wide, whatever it was, with one large opening at the front and two small others further back. The shape went under us, probably about ten metres below but still setting the ship rocking and swaying all over. Then I saw the shape continuing on and I came to one simple, but horrifying conclusion.

That was only the head.

Now I leant over the rail while all around me everyone else was tying down objects on deck or running inside.

**Can you describe it?**

**(She nods)**

I saw the rest of the beast flowing underneath. Arms the size of blue whales. Claws bigger than a freight train. And the body just kept going on and on, this scaly mass of darkness.

I was shaking by now with equal parts fear and excitement until, with a whoosh of spray and an ear piercing howl, louder than anything I had ever heard before, the beast's head emerged from the water like a submarine's conning tower.

Then I screamed. I know, makes me sound like a little coward but it was just so…overwhelming. This thing, about ten tonnes worth of head, turned in a heartbeat.

Its eyes were like pools of black, the lights from our ship reflecting off them and illuminating parts of the creature, a claw here, a section of scaled chest there. But it ignored all that and just floated there, rain polling off it in mini waterfalls and fixed its eyes, those dark orbs, directly on me. Nobody else. Not the crewmen all shrieking in terror. Not the ship bobbing in front of it like an all you can eat buffet of plate iron and tiny humans.

Just me.

And in that one second, that momentary stare, I saw into the beast's very soul. And I was afraid.

As it turned away and swam off in a froth of spray which battered our boat with columns of water and froth, whilst everyone else was screaming or shouting at each other I just stood there, feeling the same terror as when my father let me watch those old films he had loved as a child. The ones with the monsters tearing apart Tokyo with claws and radioactive breath, shrugging off missiles and swatting planes from the sky. And I felt one word come to my lips. As the rest of me was shaking in fear, hands gripping the cold steel handrail for support I just remember hearing myself repeating that one word over and over again, as if it would somehow make that experience seem less frightening and not bring back the same terror I had felt watching those black and white monsters devouring all in their path.

**What was the word?**

**(Yumi pauses, looking up at the memorial above us, her face pale. My audio recorder barely picks up her next sentence, her voice is so quiet.)**

Kaiju.


	3. Day of the Kaiju

**San Francisco, United States of America**

**(Even over a decade after the city was levelled in the world's first Kaiju attack and its subsequent destruction by a nuclear missile, San Francisco remains a smoking ruin and traces of the Trespasser's blue blood still blight its landscape. It's around twenty miles away from the remains of the city that I meet my next interviewee, Ryan Linden, a stocky, red haired 'all American' USAF pilot, the single medal on his immaculate dress uniform embossed with the word 'K-Day' in bright silver and his dark sunglasses making him look like the stereotypical 'Top Gun' pilot. The bench we sit on overlooks the sea and the ruins of San Francisco are just visible in the distance as Ryan begins to speak.)**

K Day. That's what the media called it. All the eggheads too. Even little kids on the street who have grown up knowing that Kaiju are the biggest creatures on the planet. Hell just today my kid comes home from school most days saying how he's been playing 'Jaegers and Kaijus' all day long and they started off with 'Kaiju and Jet Fighters' like on K Day, as he put it. Me, I remember things a lot differently.

Firstly K-Day is a stupid name. It wasn't even a day. It was a whole fricking week! Although maybe K Week doesn't sound as 'cool'.

Sorry, is this relevant?

**Of course. Go on.**

Ah good. I think it would be best if I started from the beginning and explain my whole role in all this and how I survived that week where millions of others didn't.

I was a pilot you see, as you no doubt guessed. That was my bird on that day.

**(He hands me a photo of a grey A-10 Thunderbolt II warplane, his younger self grinning from the cockpit.)**

Arrogant little asshole wasn't I?

**(He laughs)**

Anyway me and my squadron were on leave from Afghanistan after a six month tour blowing up Taliban bases and technicals as easy as, I dunno, bulls eyeing womp rats… So we come home to our base just outside San Francisco and, for a few days at least, things were great. I would spend all day with my family and the evenings playing basketball or Call of Duty with my boys from the base. Those sure were the good days.

And on August 10th I'm out in the morning going for a quick jog before I swing on by the old flight simulator to check I wasn't getting rusty with my flying when I just feel the earth moving beneath me. I don't mean like a slight tremble or a bit of a shake. I was on my ass in seconds, felt like the whole world was coming apart… **(The earthquake that morning was reported to be 7.1 on the Richter scale) **Then I look out over the bay; our base was up in the hills and had some great views, and I just see this…thing, emerge from the water around the Golden Gate Bridge. I remember being rooted to the spot for a few seconds, not caring if an aftershock swept me off my feet or someone started laughing at the hard man pilot sat on his ass like a little kid. I just felt so afraid for some reason along with a sense that, whatever that giant shape moving across the bay was, it wasn't here for any reason other than death and destruction.

When it tore the whole bridge to shreds I was still sat there, heart beating like a freakin jackhammer. It was only when the radio at my belt crackled into life that I actually sat up and got a grip of myself.

It was my squad mate Wilson, his voice so scared sounding as he said simply 'The commander wants us in the air in five minutes.'

I started running then, pushing aside slack jawed mechanics and soldiers, the only thought on my mind was 'Kill that son of a bitch'. By the time I reached the airfield and got into my old Hog there the entire complement of planes on the base was either in the air or racing toward the runway. I was in the air only five minutes after the beast appeared and I can still picture all those planes out there, all flying in formations and full squadrons, all kinds. There were plenty of Hogs like mine. Loads of others. Freaking F-35's that looked like they had flown out of Star Wars, an AC-130 gunship flown in for military exercises, F-15's and F-22's on all sides. And of course there were all our allies. I had never been so glad that joint training exercises had been taking place, especially when Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons and Canadian Hornets were flying alongside us.

**Was there an overall strategy?**

Hell no. I guess our commanders believed the firepower of just under a hundred aircraft was enough to wipe whatever was attacking San Francisco off the map.

**Did you know what you were facing?**

Not at all. Maybe we would have done things differently if we had thought it was a giant monster, like the crew of that survey vessel that washed up near Los Angeles a few days later said it was, and not just a crazy North Korean super submarine or Chinese giant robot come to destroy the West Coast, as most of command seemed to be saying…

**(He laughs grimly)**

A bit ironic almost… Anyway we were almost above San Francisco when a voice comes on the radio, proper British accent, not like the rednecks from my squadron."

"Need a bit of inspirational music for this?"

**(Ryan smiles sadly)**

I recognised that voice. Luna Pentecost. One of the hottest women I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, except the missus of course, and with a cute accent to boot! I remember all my squad mates hitting on her and her friend Tamsin in the local bar the night before. I'm almost lost in the memory as our unofficial air fleet powers through the cloud layer when I hear this thumping beat through my radio. Took me a second to realise it was freaking Iron Maiden screaming out The Trooper! I learnt a few things that day and two of them were that Brits and Canadians are some brave bastards and that British heavy metal is awesome!

**(His expression darkens)**

Shame that upbeat attitude didn't last…

We emerged from the clouds and over the city a few seconds later as the music got even louder and faster and individual squads starting peeling off into attack formations.

When I saw the monster smashing its way through the city below I felt that same fear come back, but when I placed my thumb on the fire button of the huge rotary cannon slung below my craft it subsided, and I was determined to bury this beast.

As we came into weapons range and I saw the planes on all sides moving into firing positions I heard Luna's voice crackle over the net one more time, shouting triumphantly 'Let's slay this dragon!'.

That's when my forward view was just filled with smoke and missiles. Every plane in the sky was going all out, firing off Sidewinders and ground to air missiles and filling the sky with trails of white. I felt my thumb pressed to the fire button, feeling the heavy machine cannon below me opening up with a dull whir, the hail of bullets slamming into the monster with dull puffs of smoke.

**Did your guns harm the Kaiju?**

In about the same way a splinter harms me. I think I saw a little puff of blue blood but I only had time to think 'Oh shit' at how useless my weapons were before the missiles all struck as one.

For a few agonising seconds all I could hear was the roar of engines around me and the thumping music in my ears as the smoke from the hundreds of missiles began to clear.

Then I heard the monster roar.

The smoke cleared and it was plain to see that the ugly, twenty storey high mass of armour plating was anything but harmed. The radio was soon full of people shouting out 'It's invincible!' while others screamed' Back to base! Back to base!' Then, in the midst of all that chaos, one voice spoke up, calm as anything, but with enough authority behind it to shut up the entire radio net.

'I'm putting a Sidewinder down this thing's throat' the voice said, and as I watched the RAF Eurofighter scream out of formation and head straight towards the monster I only had one thought…

**(Ryan pauses and looks out over the sea beyond, a single tear appearing underneath his dark glasses)**

That Luna girl had more balls than every man in that formation combined.

That's when other voices came onto the net from across the formation, not whining or screaming about how scared they were, but saying things like 'Red Sqaudron, follow me in' , 'Fire at will. Keep it distracted' and 'Let's show this monster how dangerous a load of Yanks, Limeys and Canucks can be…'

We all flew after Luna's fighter then, all spiralling off in different directions, firing off bursts of rockets and auto cannon from all sides, watching the beast turning to face the dozens of individual threats it faced. I flew straight down to the beast's head, peppering it with bullets that could carve through battle tanks, keeping one eye on that single fighter, the Union Jack proudly displayed on its underside as it corkscrewed towards the beast's gaping mouth, its escort made up of American, British and Canadian jets all working as one.

I think every single pilot out there must have been keeping an eye on Luna's plane, wishing for it to fly even faster and hoping that we could take this thing down like the Death Star with just one well-placed missile. We all saw the Eurofighter corkscrew one last time, swooping straight in, the Sidewinder on its wing just beginning to lift off.

Then the Kaiju just turned its head upwards and, in a heartbeat, brought its claw swinging down…and sliced that jet in two in one blow.

That's when my hope died.

**What happened then? Did you regroup?**

How? Everyone on the radio was just screaming about how the thing was unstoppable. I guess once Luna's brave finishing move was knocked from the sky we all kind of lost any sort of battle plan. All the planes were flying in all directions, way too close to the monster, firing off their weapons and swopping down in near suicidal moves. So many got knocked out the sky then. So many just made a wrong turn or looked the wrong way and got smashed to pieces by the Kaiju… Oh and before you go all armchair general on me like everybody else and start bitching about how we flew too low and too close like dumbasses, just remember we didn't know what the hell was going on. Command was silent, our best hope of killing the beast had failed and it seemed like nothing we did could harm it. And how through all the explosions and that beast trying to swat you out the sky do you expect us to calmly pull back and fire from a longer range? My only thought as I flew along the Kaiju's back and fired long bursts into its spine was that maybe if we got closer the bullets would penetrate more or that a lucky missile might get through it's armoured sides and detonate inside.

By the time my ammo ran dry half the jets from our formation were gone. The monster by now was just ignoring us, wading through the bay and into the city proper, tearing apart whole streets with a single step. As I turned tail back to base I saw the AC-130 swoop in low, firing all of its weapons simultaneously, managing to make nothing but a small scratch in the Kaiju's side before it just turned and swatted it from the sky like it was an annoying insect.

The airbase was complete chaos when I landed and I literally had to threaten some ground crew to repair and rearm my bird. All over there were planes lined up, their pilots either shaking their heads in complete denial of what they had seen or vomiting onto the tarmac. The base commander was out there with his staff, bellowing at every pilot to get back out there and fight that thing. As I sat there for what felt like hours waiting for the ammunition to be loaded on board and the plane checked for damage I saw squadron after squadron of jets soar overhead from inland, every so often the dull drone of attack helicopters roaring past at rooftop level, firing off long range missiles towards the city.

Soon as the plane was ready I was back in the sky, burning through all my ammo shooting at that creature as it ripped apart San Francisco below me. And then, after what felt like only a minute my ammo was gone and I was heading back to repeat the same process. Every time there would be less of us flying out and even fewer returning and the city would be even more of a ruin…

**This went on for the entire week?**

Pretty much. I would catch a few hours of sleep every so often and might grab something to eat. They had the guys from the base kitchens wheeling in these trolleys piled with burgers and big energy drink cans, anything just to keep us going.

**(He laughs)**

It just seemed almost ridicoulus, grown men just grabbing this awful food and stuffing it in their mouths and chugging cans of Red Bull before getting back in their planes to shoot at the monster for a few more minutes. We were literally getting the minimum amount of food and water needed to keep us going while we spent almost every waking minute flying sorties against the Kaiju still tearing up the city beyond.

The next few days were just more of the same. I would wake up, kiss my wife like I would never see her again, bearhug my kid then run out the door and back to my plane to try and fight the Kaiju. By the second day there were convoys of trucks stacked high with missiles and ammunition rolling into the base as our stocks grew low, while armoured divisions of tanks and heavy artillery were visible when we flew over the highway.

**What were the orders from command?**

Orders? They barely even understood what was going on out there. We only knew that every time we flew out there we were slowly wearing the thing down. By Thursday it had its first noticeable wound from a Tomahawk cruise missile on its left leg. Friday there were whole armoured divisions shelling it from the hills and by Saturday there were warplanes from international air forces flying alongside us.

Btu still that thing wouldn't die! By Sunday we were starting to wonder if this thing was actually killable! I had seen it sweep aside a whole unit of tanks like they were nothing and shrug off cruise missiles as if they were freaking raindrops so every time I fired upon it and watched only puffs of smoke rise from its side I felt my hope dying a slow and painful death. Sunday, things really were desperate. It seemed like the Kaiju was getting bored of destroying San Francisco and we had reports it was moving towards the rest of the West Coast.

That's when only one option remained.

The last thing I saw on Sunday was a dark shape streak towards the city beyond and the Kaiju still feasting upon it. Then that bright light enveloped the Kaiju and I heard its final roar…

**(He carefully removes his dark glasses to reveal sightless white eyes.)**

Then I saw no more.


	4. The Saint of San Fransisco

**Los Angeles County General Hospital, United States**

**(As soon as I mention the name of Doctor William Baybrook at the reception desk I instantly see a sense of the respect the people here have for the man, as almost all the staff in the room know exactly where the so called 'Saint of San Francisco' is to be found. When asked all of them have nothing but good things to say about the man and I am sent to his ward on the third floor with stories of his heroism during the Battle of San Francisco ringing in my ears. When I step onto the children's ward he works in I am instantly greeted by the man himself , short, balding and in his late fifties, dressed in a bright Hawaiian shirt and shorts, who only smiles modestly as I refer to him by his nickname. As we pass through the clean hospital ward many of the children call out or wave to the doctor, who only grins as we pass them by, offering a corny joke or lollipop from his pocket in return. As we enter his small office and sit down he moves a stack of papers aside to clear a space for my recorder and, as I get set up, tinkers with a small Airfix model of the Jaeger Cherno Alpha before I give him the thumbs up and we begin.)**

I guess you saw the reaction many of the staff here had when you mentioned me? To be honest I'm flattered but I don't see why I deserve it. I never fought off a Kaiju attack or saved millions of lives. I was just one man doing his job in a very extraordinary situation. No need for any awards or medals.

**(As he says this I nod towards the silver trophy on his desk, depicting the doctor shielding a group of children from an unseen foe and the gold key to the city of San Francisco, slightly charred, in a glass case behind him and he only smiles.)**

Would have been rude to say no though…

It all started on that morning of August the 11th. Nice day really, bright sun, blue sky… I was in the back of an ambulance speeding up one of the hills by the bay. Just an old man with a bit of heatstroke, but the poor guy had a heart condition so I wanted to make sure he was alright, you know? We had been called to see to a boy who had been knocked off his bike but the kid was fine and this man needed medical help ASAP. Anyway we're climbing up the hill, siren screaming, when the earth just moves beneath us. Literally I felt the solid road beneath us seem to slide around below and the driver instantly put the brakes on.

**You didn't think it was anything abnormal at the time?**

Living on the San Andreas Fault does come with some bad sides I guess. I think all of us in the ambulance knew it was bad but we didn't know how much worse it was going to get in the next few minutes. The shaking carried on for another second maybe and I heard people screaming outside, sirens blaring and a distant rumble from the direction of the bay.

Then it stopped. The earth was still again. And I remember, even as the shaking stopped, the screams still continued, even louder than before, and I heard what sounded like distant explosions from the harbour. We opened the back doors then, just to see what was going on. The view was out onto the bay and I was just looking out towards downtown when I heard the old man on the stretcher sit up straight, bolt upright and look straight out onto the bay. Then the beep of the monitor next to him echoed inside. The poor man's heart had stopped. But even as the paramedic with me started desperately doing CPR, trying to save the old guy and bring him back from the dead, I looked out onto the view beyond as if in a trance, looked out at the last thing that old man had seen, the view that had killed him. I saw nothing for a few seconds…. Then I looked out at the Golden Gate Bridge.

**(He frowns)**

Or rather what was left of it.

You remember that film 'X-Men The Last Stand'? When Magneto tore the whole bridge from its foundations? It looked like that, but instead of Ian Mckellen in a cool helmet this was a ten storey tall monster with a head like an axe blade, wading through the bay as the remains of the bridge crumbled behind it.

I was watching it for maybe a minute or so as the ambulance just sat there, the driver just stood out in the road amongst the stalled traffic with dozens of others all watching in horror. I guess the sight of that thing out there was just so alien it made us all stop in tracks, not think about the obvious danger we would all be in very soon.

It was only when the fighter jets came screaming overhead that people outside broke from this weird sense of shock and awe. I heard people cheering, others talking amongst themselves in frightened tones as more planes came roaring above us, all heading out towards the harbour. At the same time three SFPD cruisers tore past, sirens blaring, towards the harbour, followed by two fire engines ,clearing the crowds before us and disappearing down the hill. That's when I think we remembered that, no matter what disaster was happening to our city, we had a job to do. The doors were still half open as we sped through the streets and I saw the jets all fire their missiles as one, saw the smoke cloud around the monster in the harbour.

Then the smoke cleared and the monster was unharmed.

I tried to look away but, as we turned the corner and the creature was lost from sight, I just keep saying to myself over and over again 'Did that thing just take all that firepower and live?' and 'Did it just swat those planes from the skies like insects?'.

**Where were you headed to?**

Back to the city hospital. The radio was just clogged up with other ambulances calling out for help or telling others to head to the harbour. The hospital was no better when we got there though. I left the two paramedics and entered the main reception into a scene of absolute chaos. There must have been two hundred people there, paramedics, doctors, nurses, medical staff and a literal horde of civillians, only just held in check by ten hospital security staff.

**What were they all there for?**

I really don't know actually… They all seemed, from what I could pick out from the countless individual voices shouting at each other, to be there for entirely different reasons. Some wanted to know what was actually going on out there. As if we would know! Others were demanding that they be allowed to take their sick relatives and friends away, thinking that we would just leave them here if the monster in the bay came this way. And the rest were just all manner of things, both trivial and serious. But nobody had taken charge. I saw one police officer by the reception desk being accosted by three shouting nurses who were nearly ready to attack the poor guy. Since nobody else was trying to get some order into this place I pushed through the crowd and clambered onto the reception desk, shouting for order.

**(He smiles grimly)**

Did not work at all. I was just about to give up when a shot rang out over our heads and I saw the policeman lower his gun from the vertical position he had just fired it from, straight into the thick wood ceiling above his head. I was about to shout at him for firing into the room above us, which was actually an empty office anyway but then I saw that he was nodding at me and I realised that every eye in the room was on me.

I looked out at all those expectant faces and, summoning up what little courage I had left, started to speak.

**An inspiring speech?**

**(He laughs)**

Hardly. I was sweating the entire time. I stammered a bit, told them what I had seen out there and how the military were trying to fight it and I could tell a lot of them were unimpressed. Then I ended saying 'If you run now, you're saving only one life. Stay, and we can save everyone…' That really got them to listen. After that it was a mad rush of paramedics and doctors screaming out towards the harbour to help any wounded by whatever battle was raging down there, and the rest were set to work readying the hospital for disaster level medical treatment.

It was about an hour later and we were clearing some of the storerooms for extra beds when the TV in the corner, which had been set to MTV by one of the nurses ,suddenly changed. Gone was the trashy rap video and in its place was a blank black screen. I looked up for a second when suddenly the room was filled with the crackling whine of the Emergency Broadcast System and the image of the California State Governor filled the screen, seated at his desk and his face pale as he spoke.

"This is an emergency address to the citizens of San Francisco." He said simply, and I watched ,along with everyone else in the room, as he confirmed what we had feared. "The city is currently under attack by a…creature of unknown origin. Military units from the surrounding area are in the process of combating the beast, codenamed 'Trespasser' which is attacking the bay area. I am declaring a mandatory evacuation for the city and am sending in National Guard units to aid emergency services in getting all civilians to safety outside of the forty mile exclusion zone the army is in the process of creating round the city. As of now the San Francisco area is under martial law until the current crisis is resolved. I have authorised police and military units to use lethal force upon any seeking to take advantage of the situation for criminal purposes or looting…"

The governor continued but I didn't hear,as, from the bay area beyond, the crackle of gunfire and howl of the creature echoed out.

The rest of the day just went so fast. One second there were National Guard Humvees and tanks rolling out to the on-going battle with the Trespasser, the next wounded soldiers and refugees came stumbling from the port, saying how the creature was just unstoppable.

**Did you stay at the hospital?**

For the first day, yes. The day after the police and National Guard were evacuating us out by bus, saying it was just too dangerous for us to continue running the hospital. I kind of agreed with them at the time, despite my protests that the injured were still coming in. The army had been setting up a huge field hospital at the edge of the exclusion zone for the thousands being wounded by the Trespasser's attack. Added to that was the fact that the creature was steadily getting closer, as we could tell through the constant news updates and the sounds of fighter jets and explosions getting ever closer.

I was on the last bus out as we drove through the packed streets. There were whole lanes of cars just sitting there on the main road to the Oakland Bay Bridge that was being used as one of the main evacuation routes. For now the Kaiju was said to be out near the sea so they were trying to get as many people across the bridge route instead of overland. All I remember was we were sat by the bridge at the heavily guarded National Guard checkpoint, watching as heavy artillery and Abrams tanks rumbled across, whilist helicopter gunships and fighter jets screamed above the city and towards the sea.

**What was the holdup?**

At the time I thought it was the amount of civilian's traffic trying to get through that one bottleneck but later on I found it was more due to the constant military convoys moving in across that one bottleneck stopping us getting through. I don't know whether they had planned for this but it seemed like their land and air units were literally doing nothing to halt the Trespasser, and they were losing men and vehicles at such a rate that they were constantly bringing in more troops to try and fill their losses.

So I was sat in the front of the bus when there's this great commotion from the bridge, people screaming, car horns blaring ,sirens wailing, and I step off the bus and stand by the barbed wire fence the army have set out to keep the traffic in order and for a second, I see nothing expect people sprinting off the bridge and abandoning their cars. Then I look closer and see a huge clawed hand, scaly and dripping with seawater, emerge from under the bridge and grab onto the concrete and metal sides. For a second I just stood there, watching the beast emerge from the sea, watching people just push past and trample one another in their haste to escape as National Guard soldiers, their eyes wide, raise their rifles at this thirty storey high monster.

Then the bridge collapsed.

That's when I started running.

I took one look back at the crumbling bridge, the Kaiju puling itself out of the water and clambering onto the street literally only a hundred metres away as explosions blossomed out along its torso, jets screaming overhead and the roar of tanks opening fire and the rattle of machine guns echoing in my ears. I ran down the street, pushing past anyone in my path, my only thoughts of my own survival.

**(He frowns.)**

Real hero there, wasn't I?

I ran on down the street, feeling the ground move beneath my feet as the Trespasser advanced, squads of soldiers and armoured vehicles in the street ahead all firing upwards. There were people running in all directions, getting in the way of each other and the police and soldiers bravely, but futiley, shooting at the monster coming towards us. I was about to run towards the soldiers when one of them grabbed me. I don't know what he said, the explosions and gunfire had practically deafened me, but he pulled me into a shop front where a small group of civilians crouched, pushing me to the far wall, watching the view outside with a pale face and clutching his M16 to him.

For a second I saw soldiers running past and a few Humvees retreating, the gunners still firing, until a huge shadow fell across us and the heavy footsteps of the Trespasser made the ground, and the building around us, shake. As the monster stomped past the roof shook violently and the soldiers was screaming that the ceiling was collapsing… Last thing I remember then was the entire building rocking around us before a piece of the ceiling smacked me in the back of the head and I blacked out.

**How long were you out for?**

I don't know. By the time I awoke it was evening and the street was silent outside. I picked myself up and felt myself gagging at the smell. Every other person in the remains of the room was dead. Fortunately only the floor above had collapsed so I was able to clamber out and was about to run for it when I fell over the body of the National Guard soldier from before, crushed underneath a heavy piece of concrete, his rifle smashed to pieces next to him. As I lay there with every part of me throbbing with pain, I heard the dead man's radio crackle into life, saying that the rest of the unit had been wiped out and they needed to get as many civilians to safety as possible while the air force were keeping the monster distracted. I was about to answer the commander on the other end for a second, the poor man who probably already knew nobody was going to answer him when he suddenly said something else, all his previous commanding tone lost.

"Look." He said simply, his voice heavy. "If anyone can hear this, I'm on 37th Street. I'm…well… I've been crushed under some rubble and can't move. But don't come save me! There's a group of school kids trapped in a crashed bus just down the road from me. I repeat, there are kids here and they need urgent assistance or they will die! I… I don't care about me, just get them…"

The line crackled out and I knew the man was dead.

Before I left the room I took the gun from the dead soldier's holster, closing his glazed eyes and then stepping out into the street.

**Why did you take the gun?**

At the time I just figured it was the best course of action. With all the police and soldiers in the area most likely dead it was likely that all the scum and sociopaths that they had been keeping away from defenceless civilians like me would be taking their chance to… I didn't really know at the time what would happen if I encountered someone like that but I wasn't taking any chances.

When I stepped out into the street I saw a scene of absolute devastation. There was rubble everywhere from where a huge office block further down had collapsed, while grey dust covered the crushed and twisted wreckage of traffic and army vehicles. As I stumbled towards 37th Street I saw more and more of the devastation. Halfway down the road there was a tank embedded in the side of a building, while the remains of a ten tonne truck had been flattened and was surrounded by corpses.

**Were there a lot of bodies?**

**(He nods slowly)**

Hundreds. Not just emergency services and soldiers but civilians of all kinds. Men, women…children. No oone seemed to have escaped the wrath of the Kaiju. It was only when I heard the shouts for help from a yellow school bus lying on its side ahead of me that I knew I had reached my destination. Shoving the pistol into my belt I ran towards the bus, hearing the children inside shouting and screeching in fear. I kept reassuring them the whole time, telling them that I was here to rescue them.

They didn't believe me at first. It was only when I actually managed to kick open the back door and show them I wasn't just a smaller monster come to eat them all that they stopped crying. They were only little kids, maybe six or seven years old. One of them told me they had been on a school trip before their teacher had tried to get them out of the city. The bus had hit a parked car and flipped over. They said loads of people had run past and ignored their shouts for help and it was only after the roars of the monster had subsided that they had started calling for help again.

I led them through that rubble as best I could, making them walk in a line all holding each other's hands with their eyes shut. I didn't want them seeing the horror we were walking through. It was already getting dark when we reached the port, where the National Guard were evacuating people by helicopter out of the city. The soldiers there, after getting over their surprise at seeing me leading this long line of kids towards them and quickly getting them on a flight out, told me the Kaiju had been led out towards the other side of the peninsula, where the military were still hammering away at it with everything they had.

"Ready to leave?" one of them said. "After that little act of heroism I think we can get you on one of the next choppers out of here…"

"Are there still people in the city?" I asked ,and the soldier nodded grimly.

"Then my work isn't done…" I replied and walked back the way I came, hearing a few of the soldiers cheer me as ran back into that warzone.

**They didn't try to stop you?**

I guess they figured I was either too brave or too crazy to leave yet.

**(He laughs)**

**How long were you in the city for after that?**

The whole week. I wandered through those ruins looking all over for people in need and would, after giving them directions back to the evacuation point and making sure they could get there safe, just walk away and onto the next street.

**Did you encounter the Kaiju at any point?**

No. I figured quite early on that no one could survive if they were anywhere near that monster so I kept searching all the back streets and abandoned buildings I could during the day, and slept in trashed apartments by night.

The real danger was never the Kaiju for me. It was other humans that were the real monsters. By the third day there were whole gangs of looters out there, armed and willing to kill anybody who crossed them. I had to use that gun a few times before my bodyguards turned up.

**Bodyguards?**

Cole and Strand. They were these two guys who just came up to me one day whilst I was looking through a collapsed hospital and said they were here to help me. Scared the shit out of me when they first appeared. Cole was this giant of a man, about six feet tall, only knew his name because it said it on the back of his basketball shirt. He didn't speak much, but the M16 he carried did all the talking for him when we encountered any looters. Strand was the complete opposite. Big and burly too, but he was also a National Guardsman. Said his entire platoon got slaughtered retreating from the Kaiju after a failed attack by a whole tank brigade near City Hall and he had heard about me from another group of soldiers. It was around then that people started calling me by my current nickname. At the time I dint really realise how many people I was saving but they said the current total was in the hundreds and it had only been three days. I guess I was so set on getting people out I kind of blanked out the amounts.

It was Sunday that I finally stopped. Cole and Strand had been keeping me safe for the past few days, but Strand had got a call on his radio saying that the President had authorised something called the Hammerdown Protocol to kill the Trespasser. He never said what it was but I just remember after that message he told us we needed to get out of the city as quickly as we could. If I had known what was going to happen a few hours from then I would have agreed with him.

**What did you say instead?**

No. Plain and simple. There had been a call over Strand's radio an hour before saying that there was a group of survivors holed up in a bank about a mile from our position. Problem was, the Kaiju appeared to be moving towards that area, and from there it was only two miles to the evacuations point.

We reached the bank with no problems, but Strand was constantly watching the skies, which had been strangely free of aircraft for the past hour. The survivors were fine but, just as we got the evacuation point, where civilian ferries were now docked alongside military vessels whilist a sleek Navy destroyer kept watch, the ground moved beneath us.

**The Kaiju?**

**(He nods)**

It appeared from the east, smashing through whole buildings like they were nothing, swatting aside the National Guard helicopters that attempted to fire upon it. As the US Navy destroyer out in the water opened up with its main gun I ran towards the boats, half encouraging,half pushing the survivors around me to get to the nearest ferry, which was already beginning to cast off.

By the time we reached the boat the Kaiju was tearing through the port, shrugging off the fire from the Navy ship and crushing screaming survivors and soldiers alike beneath it.

The ferry was beginning to move from the dock but it was too slow, too weighed down, and the monster was getting ever closer. I took a decision then, one I still don't know where I go the courage from to consider…

**Which was?**

To sacrifice myself to distract the Kaiju from the boat. I ran into the cabin at the front of the boat to grab some flares when I found Cole and Strand already there, arms filled with flare pistols as they walked out the door.

"Been good working with you, boss." Cole said simply as they ran out, and Strand snapped off a quick salute before the two were gone.

By the time I exited the cabin they were on the dock and running towards the beast, firing off red flares and shouting abuse at the hundred tonne colossus.

As the ferry finally picked up some speed and started moving, I could just see the tiny specks that were my two bodyguards, still firing at the beast before it brought its foot down on them. We kept going and the city was soon far behind us, the Kaiju now tearing into the destroyer still firing futilely upon it.

Then I saw the lone jet fly overhead from the mainland and release a single missile towards the city beyond.

"Down!" I roared at everyone on the deck below and not too soon because, just as I dropped to the hard metal deck, an ear splittingly loud explosion roared out from the city beyond, and I heard the death throes of the Trespasser.

A minute later and I staggered to my feet, watching the grey mushroom cloud rising up from what had once been San Fransisco, and I wept. Not for myself. We were well out of range. Not even for Cole or Strand. Those men had died to save the rest of us. No, I wept in anger at myself. Angry that, if I had only been faster in my searching for the week, more people might have been saved.

That's why I'm not a hero. A hero saves everyone. And I guess I just go to prove that that's impossible, isn't it?

* * *

**A/N- Sorry for the late update! I just want to take this chance to thank Warlord-Xana,SensiblyTainted,Julian Wright,SpammerheadShark,Bhoddistava,Criticanon, Bear of Cali,evelsaint93 and Dorkzilla for your reviews and also thanks to anyone who favourited or followed. Your support was something I am genuinely suprised and very thankful for and I hope to reward your support with some epic chapters in the future! Next part- Manila and Kaiju Blue!**


	5. Code Blue

**Philippine Army Secure Psychiatric Hospital, Manila, the Philippines**

**(As soon as I enter the spacious main entrance hall of the hospital I can see exactly why the security checkpoints and armed guards were necessary as the muffled shouts of the inmates beyond echo through the thick whitewashed walls. Only a few patients are out in the room beyond and each is accompanied by a burly orderly with a Taser at their hip. My guards, two polite but brisk soldiers, each have their hands near their sidearms as we walk down the corridor and into the first set of secure wards. The patients here are all veterans from the disastrous 'Code Blue' clean-up operation by the Philippine Army after the attack by the Kaiju 'Plaguebringer' upon Manila a decade ago. Although many of those involved in the operation have subsequently committed suicide, these survivors still remain as a painful reminder that, although the physical remains of the Kaiju and its attack may be gone, the scars left by its assault upon this country still remain. My two guards leave me as I reach the cell of Sergeant Joseph Hernandez, one of the most high profile veterans of Code Blue, and I step inside. As two orderlies flank me Joseph sits across the table from me, his tanned skin now pale and his cheeks sunken, as if he is a long time drug addict, yet his eyes are still alert and dart around the room as he begins his story.)**

Kaiju Blue. Sounds like a freaking soda or type of icing.

**(He laughs humourlessly.)**

I wish I had never heard of the stuff.

Back in 2014 my life was great. I had just been promoted, my squad were all my best mates and the girl of my dreams, Cristina Jacinto, had just agreed to be Mrs Hernandez. Life was good. I guess everybody's life was good back then. I don't know why, but I just remember the day before the…event, to be the best of my life.

Anyway… I was at my room at base when my squad mate Private Gorrolo rushes in and grabs me, practically dragging me towards the canteen, where what seemed like everyone from the base was gathered around the small TV in the corner. I was about to berate the officer for dragging me out for what was probably just a sports event on the news when I heard the words of the news anchor. The room was deadly silent as the harried female reporter spoke.

"Reports are coming in…" she said in between long pauses in which she just put her head in her hands and sobbed, before looking up through tear stained eyes to continue. "That a large creature has emerged from the Pacific Ocean and is advancing upon Manila… This appears to be…similar to the events in San Francisco last…"

The quiet of the room was broken by the base commander storming into the room, shouting the place down. That was the weirdest part of that morning.

**Why?**

You have to understand that Major Thapa had never raised his voice like that before. He was one of those old fashioned 'respect not fear' type commanders, and I had never seen him raise his voice beyond a calm order delivered like a slightly scornful parent. This raging commander in front of us, bellowing at us to get to attention and stop glancing at the images of the Kaiju storming into downtown Manila across the news reports was more alien to me than the monster on the TV.

As the sounds of Manila's death throes echoed out from the TV the major started bawling orders at us until the entire room were on their feet and at attention. Only when the whole canteen was silent did he speak again and started pacing up and down and looking every man in the eye.

"Sorry to tell you boys but we are not going to Manila to fight that hell spawn."

I could almost feel the relief in the room from every man.

"No…" the major continued, and I felt my heart sink at his next words. "We're on clean-up duty. Seems this monster is spewing a toxic blue substance that the eggheads have already codenamed 'Kaiju Blue'. They fear this could be the start of an alien plague that could be so virulent the whole country, not just that Kaiju, are going to be nuked… So we're going to quarantine and contain the infection. By any means necessary."

**What did they think Kaiju Blue was at the time?**

I really don't know. A lot of scientists, who had literally had all of half an hours' worth of time to see the state of the city, thought that, as we had never seen something like this before, a combination of alien biology and a lack of immunity meant that whatever plague Kaiju Blue carried could just tear through humanity like wildfire.

We could instantly see how serious things were when we left the base, full company, in a convoy of trucks heading down the main highway, the suburbs around us filled with refugees but the highway almost ominously clear except for other military convoys. Our base was only about twenty miles out from the city but we must have passed at least one checkpoint every mile, each one more crazy than the last. It went from a squad of guys with rifles next to some sandbags all the way up to a whole platoon of men in white hazmat suits stretched across the highway backed up by armoured vehicles and a helicopter. We stopped at that last one and were each handed a white hazmat suit identical to the ones the men at the highway blockade were wearing.

By the time we were all suited yup like extras from a sci-fi movie the shadow of the Kaiju was already moving across the city to the south, pursuing low flying helicopters luring it away from the population centre.

**Did you witness its death?**

Kind of. We had just started moving into the empty city in a column of jeeps and armoured cars when there was a blinding flash on the horizon, behind a row of silent office blocks. One of the radio men in the jeep behind started saying the Americans had hit it with a tactical nuke. You see, the Philippine military isn't like the big Western ones. We can't just call down a swarm of fighter jets of tank divisions. In the end that's what saved the city from being a smoking crater as our commanders, in what was probably the only sensible decision that day lured the Plaguebringer into the surrounding countryside and waited for the American missile to tear it apart.

Good plan.

**(He shakes his head, his fists clenching on the table in front of him)**

Shame the rest of their plan was a load of bullshit. We rode into that city, not as liberators, but exterminators. The first infected people we saw was at a hastily constructed checkpoint further into the city which we passed by in our convoy. I can still see those people even now, drenched in Kaiju Blue and screaming as the other soldiers just shot them down and burnt the corpses.

The whole city was in chaos. One street might be empty expect for some abandoned cars, and others might be filled with refugees rushing to the next checkpoint or just silent and corpse filled except for a few troops with flamethrowers. It was hell.

We couldn't stop though. Not when mothers thrust their children at us, not when people tried to climb on board, not when people missing limbs or covered in blood from wounds screamed at us to help. We only stopped for one thing.

Infected.

We might find the odd one early on, stumbling through the streets howling for help, covered in thick globs of this deep blue vomit. Didn't even need to stop then, just had to slow down so a sniper could put a round through their skull and toss a thermite grenade onto the corpse. I thought at first that might be it. Then we reached Tondo District.

Have you ever seen a slum before my friend? Probably on those charity videos. Trust me, what I saw in Tondo that day made those slums in Africa and the Caribbean look like Beverly Hills in comparison. When we drove in there we saw people stumbling around missing limbs, children trampled in the rush to escape, blood patches around the collapsed remains of shacks and cheap quality tenements. The Kaiju had been in this area for only around five minutes but must have killed hundreds of thousands. The rest though, that's another story.

Every dirt and ash encrusted man, woman and child, all of them had Kaiju Blue slathered over them, as did every building and street corner. It looked like someone had just deliberately seeded this shit everywhere, and I remember seeing the eyes of my squad mates go dark behind the lenses of their gasmasks.

From up ahead the order came to halt and we stopped, every man readying their weapons. Instantly we were mobbed by the crowd, people screaming for help, trying to pull off the blue stuff coating every inch of them, as if they were making themselves look better for us. Already I could see many of them were pale and weak. The infection was already taking hold of them.

"Take aim!" came the order from further up the line and I could see the people in front of us back away as we stood up and readied our guns.

"Cleanse them!" the next order came in a heartbeat. I guess you think I'm going to say I went all numb then, blanked it out and forgot about it.

**(He smiles, but his eyes are cold and filled with sadness)**

No.

I remember the face of every man; woman and child staring back at us as we opened fire. Every one filled with a sense of total betrayal as those high calibre rounds tore them apart. Even when we burnt the corpses those eyes still stared back at us, until they melted into a gooey mass on the blackened bones.

We kept on like this the whole day until we reached Rizal Park in the city centre, the Kaiju's footprint marks tearing great gouges through the grass and uprooted remains of trees as we drove to the Rizal Monument in the middle, which a helicopter scout said was packed with survivors.

I was in the lead jeep at the time with the major and our scientific advisor, Doctor Anderson, some American scientist who had conducted tests on the radioactive remains of the Trespasser. When we came close to the monument helicopter filled with snipers hovering low overhead, we saw a crowd of hundreds standing around it, all listening to a figure speaking from atop the steps of the monument. It didn't take more than a cursory glance to see the patches of blue coating the refugees.

"Take out the ringleader." The major said simply as he looked at me, and I, with slightly trembling hands, aimed my M16, panning it across the shocked refugees, who now found themselves surrounded by our vehicles and a wall of raised weapons. Yet when I looked upon the figure atop the monument, I felt my blood go cold.

It was Cristina.

I knew she was somewhere in Manila that day, but I guess I just forgot in all the chaos, made myself believe she was somehow going to be fine when so many others weren't.

"Take the shot soldier." Doctor Anderson ordered simply, not even looking at the crowd before us, who were now screaming in terror at the masked men with guns before them.

Cristina stared right at me then, knowing, somehow, it was me despite the thick hazmat gear and gas mask covering my entire features. She didn't cry out, didn't scream… Not even when the other soldiers opened up on the crowd, not when the fires from our flamethrowers licked at the base of the monument she stood on. The only screaming was from me, when the good doctor simply grabbed my sidearm and, with a slight smile of satisfaction behind his mask, put a bullet between her eyes. He turned then to me and said, in the most casual way possible, one of those awful Western slang phrases as he patted me on the back…

"Job done."

It was only a day later that I saw a news report saying the scientists had discovered from samples taken in Manila that Kaiju Blue was not considered to be a contagious poison. That's when I also found that more people were killed by the military clean-up operation that the Kaiju itself…

**(At this point the sergeant puts his head in his hands and burst into loud sobs then begins slamming his head against the table until the orderly restrains him and I am escorted from the room. I would find out later he ran at one of the armed guards during an evening meal in the canteen later that day, screaming threats and obscenities until he was shot in self-defence, a crumpled and bloodstained picture of himself and a pretty young woman in his hand.)**


	6. Blood in the Water

**Portsmouth Defence Perimeter, United Kingdom**

**(As the grey Pan Pacific Defence Corps Merlin helicopter that is my ride to England, on loan from the RAF, emerges through the rain cloud blanketing the city, I can instantly see why Portsmouth is codenamed 'Camelot' amongst the PPDC. The fifty metre high concrete walls, fixed heavy artillery and patrols of helicopters around the heavily fortified harbour seem almost unnecessary, this far from the Pacific. However many here still remember the reports of the attack upon Cape Town in 2017 ,where a lone Kaiju, having bypassed the radar systems around the Breach, managed to lay waste to half the city before the Jaeger 'Rainbow Warrior', only just out of the training grounds and about to be shipped to Lima, destroyed the creature. As one of the most important PPDC bases outside of the Pacific Rim area, Portsmouth has a strong military presence, if only to put the minds of the British public at rest. As the helicopter lands and I disembark into the freezing rain my current interviewee, Corporal Greg Hailwood, meets me on the tarmac and invites me to join him at the local pub, renamed 'Trafalgar Monarch' after the first, and only British Jaeger, and as we sit down, the looming form of the Kaiju Wall just visible out the window, we begin the interview)**

I was sitting right here when the news about Manila came on the TV. I remember the entire place going silent as we saw the 'clean-up squads' at work, saw the mushroom cloud hanging over the surrounding suburbs. Me and the lads never thought we would have to see that sort of thing again. All the scientists said these were freak events, one in a billion chance of ever happening again. The UN though, had a different idea entirely…

**You're referring to the Pacific Defence Fleet?**

Yeah that load of horseshit. I could see the idea behind it, fight them out at sea so no more civilians have to get killed. Only real flaw I the fact that, at the end of the day, those Kaiju were from the freaking sea! And if Portsmouth FC's continued failures in away games have taught me anything, it's that fighting something where it has the terrain advantage is probably the dumbest move you can imagine. That's like fighting a Russian in Siberia. You're never going to win because they know, and are practically a part of, that environment. A shame everybody forgot that when they were busy setting up the fleet. Most people at the time were convinced that the firepower that a combined naval taskforce could bring to bear would be a lot more effective against a Kaiju than ground and air attack ever could be. A lot of people don't realise that, since World War 2, we just haven't had the old broadside style battleships like HMS Hood or USS Missouri. Ironically most of our naval power comes from the planes on our aircraft carrier, not the wimpy little guns we have on our ships now.

**And yet noone noticed that problem?**

Not at all. I think everyone was so shaken up about the whole 'Code Blue' incident and the prospect of having to nuke another city that the whole world was jut clutching at straws. The UN just stepped in and did what they could I guess. I guess us Europeans thought ourselves immune to all that; that the monsters had only ever ravaged the Pacific area so far so why should we be scared?

**(He sighs)**

It didn't last. The Secretary General was very insistent after Manila that we should actually plan a better response, instead of just blindly rushing in, like we did at San Francisco…

I remember the ships coming out of Portsmouth harbour behind us as I stood on the deck of the HMS Montrose. There were so many, flags flying proudly like knights riding to battle. There they all powered out, men on the sides waving at the crowds all standing on the dockside cheering us on and waving a sea of Union Jacks and singing. The HMS Dragon was alongside us, the boys on its main deck unfurling a huge banner depicting a red dragon tearing into a monstrous Kaiju as the HMS Illustrious and the HMS Ark Royal, the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier, steamed past at the centre of it all, the flight deck covered in jets and attack helicopters.

**Weren't the Queen Elizabeth class ships not due for another five years?**

You would not believe how much money and manpower our military can bring to bear with the threat of giant monsters rears its head.

**(He points out of the window at the towering form of the Kaiju Wall)**

That was put up in just over a year. If you go down to London you'll find the same thing. Just because the Kaiju are just in the Pacific right now doesn't mean we should get complacent.

Anyway we met up with the rest of the international fleet about ten miles out from the Baja Peninsula. Command figured that the breach must be somewhere off California or Mexico considering the speed that the Trespasser reached the West Coast. It was only a few months later they actually found where the breach was…

**How many ships were in the fleet?**

Must have been at least a few hundred. The Americans and Chinese alone must have made up half of the ships there. There were all types. Destroyers, a few aircraft carriers, a few dozen small cruisers and a whole extra fleet of conventional and nuclear submarines.

**Nuclear?**

I know, a bit extreme right? The battle plan was simple really. When the KEAS **(Kaiju emergency Alert System- a satellite Kaiju tracking system set up in the wake of the San Francisco attack) **brought up the coordinates of whatever Kaiju emerged from the ocean, the submarines were cleared to aim a tactical nuke right at its position.

**And the fleets role?**

Clean-up duty. That and an attempt to show the people of the world that we weren't just going to lob nukes at every Kaiju to emerge from the Breach. If it came to full naval warfare against a Kaiju, we all figured we could kill it. Even so there was a mood on board the Montrose, and I know after talking to crew of other ships after the attack that this was a feeling shared across the fleet, that we needed a long term solution, not just to throw missiles at every Kaiju. Even after two attacks many were convinced that there would be more Kaiju, and that nuclear weapons just weren't a sustainable option.

**When did the Kaiju first appear?**

Midnight. We were roused from our bunks as soon as that thing pinged up on the alert system, and we were out on deck, readying weapons and checking the horizon, as the first missile emerged from the deck of the USS Kentucky, lighting up the entire fleet as it rose up into the sky. I remember seeing the crew of the Japanese ship 'Hyuga' spilling out onto their main deck just as the missile launched, a few waving at us as the lights on the other ships all came on in one blinding flash.

It was a few seconds later that we saw the mushroom cloud on the horizon, and I was so glad for the protective goggles every one of us had been given. I've heard the stories of the people blinded in San Francisco by the nuke that killed the Trespasser.

I was just turning back to head inside when the ship's address system came online, and the voice of the captain came crackling out.

"Kaiju inbound." He said simply, and I saw the victorious smiles of my comrade's die and their faces pale. "I repeat,the Kaiju is inbound."

**The missile strike failed?**

It bloody missed! I don't know how. Maybe the missile itself was faulty or the guidance system failed. At the time I, stupidly, thought that this Kaiju might have some sort of inbuilt anti-missile system so it couldn't be locked onto…

Whatever happened I knew that we didn't have time to fire another missile. The boys in the radar room were already shouting over the radio at us, bellowing that the Kaiju was impossibly fast, that we only had a few minutes before it came at us.

**Why couldn't you have fired another missile?**

Not at the speed that thing was coming at. By the time we fired another missile we would have taken out half the fleet. No, the only thing that remained was to fight. All aircraft were in the air, all guns and missile tubes loaded and ready to fire, every sailor and marine at their post. As I watched the searchlights sweeping the cold black sea from the bridge alongside the captain, I remember that, for a few seconds, there this weird silence, the only sound the clatter of weaponry being checked and rechecked, and the dull thud of helicopter blades outside. The entire plan had fallen apart. We hadn't expected the Kaiju to attack at night and our orders had been, if it came to that, to make for port and just let the missile do its work.

**Why didn't you?**

Blame command! They were so geared up for this big victory that they forgot we actually needed to kill the Kaiju first! And all our fancy radar, weapons and equipment proved useless in finding the Kaiju before it wanted to be found, and by then it was too late to turn tail and run.

The radar systems started going crazy jut a second or two before the Kaiju appeared, while the sea outside was rolling and heaving crazily beneath us. We all watched that blip on the screen growing larger and larger and the sea outside getting even higher and wild, as if it sensed the monster out there was definitely not of this world. It just kept getting closer and closer, a bit slower than before, as if the thing was toying with us.

Then it was gone.

The blip just disappeared, only a mile or so from the edge of the fleet. One guy actually breathed a sigh of relief, as if the Kaiju had somehow just disappeared from existence. I remember looking out through the window at the huge form of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an absolutely massive aircraft carrier, stacked full of fighter jets and helicopters, lighting up the area around it with a blaze of spotlights. For a second the sea seemed to calm slightly, and I was about to turn back and tell everyone it was going to be alright when I heard the ping of the radar again, even louder than before, and everyone behind me started shouting.

Then every sound, the whir of the helicopters, roar of the waves, shouts of crewmen all that faded as I heard the most ears splitting roar ever…and it was coming from right below us.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt started turning, as if the crew sensed the danger they were in. But it was too late. The Kaiju tore right through the main deck, its ugly head piercing the flight deck and roaring in triumph. It was only after the remains of the ship sank below the surface and the Kaiju was right in the midst of our fleet that things went crazy. I was already running for the door when the monster tore through the Hyuga and a Chinese gunboat without even breaking stride, before diving below the waves and coming up in the middle of two American cruisers.

I don't know who fired the first shot but when that monster turned its head, those giant yellow eyes staring into every one of us, the smoke from the missile curling off where it had struck, the only sign of any kind of wound a slight bit of blackening on its grey scales, I knew we were all dead.

And then…well all hell broke loose.

Every ship just started firing, all semblance of order or a strategy lost. It was every man for himself now that monster was in the middle of us, able to grab ships in seconds and smash them apart, or just tear gouges out of them and leave them to disappear below the black sea. I saw so many men just disappear under the waves that day, or get caught in the wake of other ships and go under. There was even a group of Chinese sailors, all falling off the sides of their ship, this huge modern cruiser, and the helicopters lashed down to the sides breaking their bonds and pulling those same men down into the depths…

Then a shell slammed into the side of the ship and we realised we were right in the middle of a crossfire. The Kaiju was still tearing its way through every ship it could, but our own shots were going all over the place. I saw the HMS Illustrious take a missile to the stern and disappear under the waves, while one of the French warships, trying to break for land, ploughed right into the Ark Royal and the Kaiju tore its way through both of them. The sky was just full of smoke and flame and the attack helicopters and jets pounding the Kaiju with rockets and missiles. And then the HMS Dragon, in what ah to be one of the bravest moves I've ever seen, drove at full speed at the Kaiju, its crew whooping and shooting off flares as it fired all its weapons at once.

**Did it work?**

Did it fuck! The Kaiju just reared up and ripped that ship to pieces, and I felt my mind go back to that flag they had made, and the blood-stained rag it had now become as the ship went down.

I don't remember being given a rifle, or when I started just shooting off the portside with my crewmates, but I know that every one of us knew it was useless. Everyone had seen this thing shake off cruise missiles so our little NATO rounds were just no use at all.

**But you kept firing?**

What else could I do? Our main gun had been destroyed by a stray RPG round from a Russian destroyer and the missiles were all gone. On the other ships I could see other crews doing the same. There were some US Marines firing M16s from the deck of the US Bunker Hill before the Kaiju ripped the ship apart with one sweep of its claws and they went screaming into the sea below.

I don't know how long I had been shooting before we saw the monster dip under the water and then hurl this huge black object at us. It flew overhead, water spraying onto us from it sides, and it took it a second for me to realise one thing.

It was a submarine.

And then there was no time to do anything but scream as the Kaiju pounded toward us, tearing low flying helicopters from the sky and howling in rage. That's when I started running. I threw aside my rifle as the others kept shooting; my last view of my shipmates was the entire deck filled with sailors and Royal Marines, all firing even as a giant claw swept them from the deck.

I was still running as the ship started to come apart under the Kaiju attack and I came out onto the helipad at the stern as the ship's Lynx helicopter was taking off from the crumpling deck, the roar of the Kaiju and the tearing of metal behind me deafening.

It was only when we were airborne, the cabin crammed full of soaking wet marines and crewmen that I dared to look back at the fleet. The pilot was getting us out of there, he said, and frankly I agreed. The battle was lost as soon as the Kaiju appeared, and after I turned to look back and saw the countless ships laid out beneath us, all either on fire or sinking, the Kaiju almost lazily destroying the stragglers ,and later when I heard how half of Cabo was nuked to kill the monster ,that I knew one thing was true about this war…

**(He pauses for a second, and gestures towards the poster behind him, depicting the Jaeger Trafalgar Monarch tearing apart the Kaiju 'Acheron')**

We needed a new weapon.


End file.
